On Being Ill or Understanding Anemia

On Being Ill

Author: Virginia Woolf

In this poignant and humorous work, Virginia Woolf observes that though illness is part of every human being's experience, it has never been the subject of literature-like the more acceptable subjects of war and love. We cannot quote Shakespeare to describe a headache. We must, Woolf says, invent language to describe pain. And though illness enhances our perceptions, she observes that it reduces self-consciousness; it is "the great confessional." Woolf discusses the cultural taboos associated with illness and explores how illness changes the way we read. Poems clarify and astonish, Shakespeare exudes new brilliance, and so does melodramatic fiction!

On Being Ill was published as an individual volume by Hogarth Press in 1930. While other Woolf essays, such as A Room of One's Own and Three Guineas, were first published by Hogarth as individual volumes and have since been widely available, On Being Ill has been overlooked. The Paris Press edition will feature original cover art by Woolf's sister, the painter Vanessa Bell. Hermione Lee's Introduction will discuss this "extraordinary" work, and explore Woolf's revelations about poetry, language, and illness.

Virginia Woolf (1882—1941) is one of the great literary geniuses of the 20th century. Her innovative fiction and essays are revered by readers around the globe. She was a central member of the Bloomsbury group and a groundbreaking feminist, publishing book-length essays that continue to change the lives of women today. Her most popular novels include To the Lighthouse, Mrs. Dalloway, and Orlando. When she was not writing, Virginia Woolf operated Hogarth Press with herhusband Leonard Woolf.

Hermione Lee is the acclaimed Virginia Woolf scholar and the author of Virginia Woolf (Knopf, 1997). Other books include Willa Cather and the forthcoming biography of Edith Wharton. She is Goldsmith's Professor of English Literature and Fellow of New College at the University of Oxford, England.

The New Yorker

The first sentence of this essay, which was originally published in T. S. Eliot's New Criterion, in 1926, includes references to both the consolations of angels and the indignities of the dentist's chair, and this almost gleeful waywardness is characteristic of what's to come. By turns lyrical, self-mocking, and outlandish, Woolf's meditation on the perils and privileges of the sickbed lampoons the loneliness that makes one "glad of a kick from a housemaid" and extolls the merits of bad literature for the unwell. As Hermione Lee points out in her excellent introduction, the author only hints here at the mental and physical illnesses that plagued her throughout her life, but one's knowledge of them gives the references to "waters of annihilation" and "deserts of the soul" an added resonance. And yet the consolations of creation are also considered. When Woolf imagines beauty in a frozen-over garden, even after the death of the sun -- "There, thrusting its head up undaunted in the starlight, the rose will flower, the crocus will burn" -- it seems less a triumph of nature than of art.

Book review: The Doctors Complete College Girls Health Guide or Coyote Healing

Understanding Anemia

Author: Ed Uthman

Understanding Anemia gently builds upon elementary knowledge of biology to provide the general reader with a fairly sophisticated understanding of the various causes of anemia, the methods used to make diagnoses, and the principles of treatment. The book begins with a definition of anemia and a brief history of the scientific study of blood. It explains how the doctor makes the diagnosis and details the main types of anemia. Since the different conditions result from the failure of various organs, the reader will come away with a surprisingly broad understanding of human anatomy and physiology, encompassing the digestive, circulatory, and immune systems, nutrition, biochemistry, and heredity.

Table of Contents:

	Acknowledgments and Dedication
	Introduction
1	What Is Anemia?	3
2	How Is Anemia Diagnosed?	20
3	Iron Deficiency Anemia	29
4	Vitamin Deficiency Anemias	45
5	Hemolytic Anemias	67
6	Inherited Anemias	91
7	Miscellaneous Anemias	117
Appendix A	A Mercifully Brief Note on the Metric System	131
Appendix B	A Whirlwind Review of Basic Cell Biology	132
Appendix C	Typical Normal Values for Common Hematologic Lab Tests	134
Appendix D	Bone Marrow Biopsy	134
Appendix E	Mistakes Doctors Make Concerning Anemia	135
Appendix F	Resources for Additional Information	137
	Glossary	141
	Index	149